Before Maeyune turned eight and had been restricted to reside at the moon temple, she had lived at the Ursan celestial base. While other celestial children had been allowed to paint and scribble, the men and women in white coats and military uniforms had given Maeyune texts to study.

She had wanted to play with the other children, had wanted to participate in their predictable games of hide-and-seek. She had even wanted those pretty, little dolls that the other girls her age had played with.

But having been fated as the world's Moon God incarnate, she had been excluded from all of those unnecessary childhood pleasures. All Maeyune had known as a child was the exact hour of training, how to defeat her simulated enemies with real bullets and real steel, the important histories and practices of magic, and how she would become the planet's hero.

The routine had defined her life.

Then, days after turning eight, she'd killed five innocent people.

Maeyune had known what fear was. She had seen it through the eyes of children and adults who had walked past. They'd known what the girl with the Moon God's power was capable of doing, and behind their small talk and pleasantries, they'd wanted only to avoid her if ever and whenever possible.

She hadn't minded, though. If she'd had the desire to, she would have coerced their friendship. All she'd had to do was implant the suggestion in their minds, and they would have been hers forever.

It had been early in her Aegis Team's formation, and she'd had no conception of real friendship yet. No, the others had been too busy wetting themselves in terror whenever around her.

Normalcy had not been an option for someone like her, so she had aimed for acceptance.

But when fabricated friendships had turned out to be mundane and uninteresting, she'd fallen into a state of quiet and confusion. She had submitted herself into a lonely darkness so deep that not even Aunt Lyn, Master Jorin or the moon temple guardians had been able to pull her out.

On one evening after a ruthless session against four automechs, she'd lain in bed and curled into a ball to weep away the pain of her bruises. She had refused healing. She had decided to wear her bruises as a reminder to herself to be stronger, that if she were to find acceptance, it would be as the world's best warrior. Bruises were evidence that she wasn't good enough, and if she wasn't good enough, then she was unacceptable.

But as tears and all awful matters of liquid drenched her pillow, a calming sensation overcame her. It soothed her to sleep, and she dreamed of a silver, glimmering dragon.

That had been the first she had ever seen Shivra in her dreams. And since that night, whenever that same quiet and confusion came to greet her, he was always there, his power reminding her that she was not alone.

Calm and serene, the moon dragon taught her that power was neither good nor evil, that it was the wielder who determined that path. His presence had always been good to her, and so she wanted to be good, too.

Having often felt remorse for intruding on private thoughts and conversations, she'd promised herself as a child that she would never do it again. She had always believed that to be the right thing to do.

Shivra had shown her how important her choices were. She was important. While others had shied away from her, he had been her foundation of strength.

He was the reason why she fought.

So when that same quiet and confusion sent Maeyune down to her knees on that hill, when an emptiness paralyzed her after the moon had shattered like broken glass, she called to Shivra for that foundation of strength.

But he did not come to her.

There was only silence.

She did not feel his presence, his power, or his goodness. All that she felt was a void in the place where she had once sensed him. There was nothing there anymore, nothing left.

Her glazed eyes were wide as she stared and stared at the moon's remnants. Its separate pieces still reflected the sun, but they weren't as bright as before when they had been whole.

The moon's demolished form in the black, starlit night was strange and oddly poetic. It was something far too unreal, something that for a moment, looked like a cruel painting and nothing more. Some desperate part of Maeyune's mind told her she was dreaming.

Yes, that had to have been it.

The Overlord was still toying with her mind. None of this was real. That new ship wasn't real. The moon was still intact and was not a pile of rocks.

The moon was still whole. Nothing could destroy it.

For heaven's sake, it was the moon. How could anything destroy it?

This was all a dream, an illusion, more mind games to distract her. She had to wake up, had to--

"Maeyune?"

She didn't move as Reo's voice infiltrated her shock.

He tried again. "Maeyune..."

Gentle fingers brushed her shoulder, and the touch brought with it the explosive surge of reality.

Her body catapulted into movement. She sprung to her feet, a hand flying upward to the sky. She willed all her energy to accumulate in order to launch a power wave against the enemy ship.

The purple beam had disappeared moments ago, and the ship had already moved past the fragmented moon. It now grew larger with each passing minute, drawing closer down to the planet.

Destroy it...I must destroy it!

But there was no tingle of magic, no glowing skin. Nothing stirred in Maeyune's veins.

She threw out her other hand, and when her power remained unresponsive, her throat emitted a quiet whimper.

She stomped forward on heavy feet and called for her aegis shield, for anything and everything.

Nothing happened.

"No," she rasped. "No!"

She punched the air with fists, an attack that should have sent shockwaves, but now made her look like a raging lunatic. A rush of shock took out her legs from underneath her, and she collapsed onto her knees and hands.

Grass and clumps of dirt bit into her palms, and she absently curled her fingers into the ground. Distracted by such an insignificant sensation, she gawked in wonder at the way green, slender blades bent and bowed underneath her hands.

Human. These pale hands had never looked so human and fragile before.

What was this? This cold and empty feeling inside her?

Please...Please don't let this be true. Anything but this.

The world had gone quiet. Her mind had gone quiet. She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing with all the intensity she could muster. She aimed for her mind's eye, for her telepathy, for the very thing she had known all her life and that people had feared. Her power was second nature to her; it should have taken her no more than a thought for her to find it.

And yet, there was nothing. There were no telepathic waves, no mental connections.

Eternal silence was all that greeted her.

Maeyune leaned back onto her heels, and her lost gaze crept upward once again.

Shattered.

In the distance, several remnants of the moon developed a red glow as they began to burn. Gravity was working its tethers, pulling a dozen rocks through the atmosphere and down toward the planet. Maeyune could not begin to imagine where those pieces would crash, or how many people who stared in horror would perish from the impacts.

Suolan...The kingdom under the moon.

Her people, the Suolani.

Master Jorin, Aunt Lyn, the king and his family.

What did her kingdom's people think now that their very symbol had been obliterated in a matter of seconds? Did they wonder if she were dead, too?

Shattered.

The moon was destroyed.

And the Overlord was going to pay.

With no power and no way to connect to Shivra, Maeyune let anger fill that hole. There came the compulsion to lie down and curl into a dejected ball, but she needed to feel anything but that. She needed to be angry to keep her from falling apart. Anger would give her enough strength to do what had to be done.

The Overlord was still alive.

And now that another of the enemy was on its way down, she refused to allow his reinforcements to rescue him.

Fury detonated in her blood and propelled her into action. She leaped back up to her feet and shoved past Reo.

"We're not finished yet," she grumbled to him, storming down the hill and back into the forest.

(Continued to Part 2)